The National Australia Bank have teamed up with Alibaba’s Cloud division to host a hackathon this weekend, to explore new ways to help Australian small businesses leverage opportunities to do business with Asia.

The 3-day event will see more than 100 people across 15 teams look at how data could help develop new solutions to enable Australian businesses selling to China and how they can improve services for Chinese visitors coming to Australia. Contestants will use NAB and Alibaba Cloud APIs to develop new initiatives to help Australian small businesses.

The event is the first major activity held at fintech hub, Stone & Chalk’s new residence at the Goods Shed in Melbourne.

The winning team will walk away with a prize that includes:

US$10,000 Alibaba Cloud credits +

Return airfares for four people to Singapore or China

Three night accommodation for four people in Singapore or China

Four tickets to the Alibaba Cloud Computing Conference in Singapore or China.

“We’re excited to be engaging with our thriving start-up ecosystem to see what new ideas we can come up with, using the data we have, to deliver better experiences for Australian small businesses.”

“As Australia’s largest business bank we are always looking at ways we can support Australian businesses and we are looking forward to seeing what new experiences the teams come up with.”

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Raymond Ma, General Manager of ANZ & ASEAN Alibaba Cloud said,

“This is a great initiative for entrepreneurs, developers and designers to create something of real value to businesses and visitors to Australia. We’re excited to see what the teams can deliver. As Alibaba Cloud expands its footprint and services across the region, we will continue our global mission to make it easy to do business anywhere.”

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Stone & Chalk Melbourne General Manager Alan Tsen said,

“We’re excited to be hosting this event, with NAB and Alibaba, at our new Melbourne home, the Goods Shed North. Events like this hackathon are a great way to highlight the latent opportunities that exist for companies to tap into the Asian market.

With more than 100 entrants, there are sure to be some amazing product ideas that come out of the weekend and we’re excited to be bringing corporate and start-up innovation together.”

Creator of techAU, Jason has spent the dozen+ years covering technology in Australia and around the world. Bringing a background in multimedia and passion for technology to the job, Cartwright delivers detailed product reviews, event coverage and industry news on a daily basis.

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